call the midwife part 2

[NimbleHiker]

I am setting up the next thread before i forget.

The fourth brother's either Mark or Stephen (I can't remember which one of those two is Dr Turner).

I remember that sitcom with Joe in too - the woman was very posh and he was very working class.

ThEre was definitely one in Camden!

‘Confirmed bachelor’, ‘dedicated to his mother’ and ‘safe man’, were phrases I seem to remember.

In the 1920s my mother’s parents had friends who were two openly gay women who clearly adored each other. They lived together as a couple. They were seen as somewhat eccentric but perfectly ‘safe’. I think that was to do with legislation rather than anything else. Two men doing the same would be breaking the law whereas there was never a law against female homosexuality because apparently Queen Victoria didn’t believe it was even a thing. It took so long to get to where we are now and we have to guard hard against slipping backwards.

The Upper Hand was the sitcom with Joe. I really loved it at the time.

I liked The Monocled Mutineer. That was Paul. Was that really 40 years ago? (I just looked it up 1986!

General service requirements now mean that all adoption agencies must follow the same rules about who can adopt - including allowing single parent adoption.

I used to work in NHS elderly care in the 70's and up until I retired early 2000's It was not uncommon to meet older ladies who lived together. The tell tale was when when we did the home assessments, sometimes there was only one bedroom in use. We did meet men in the same circumstances but less frequently. I suspect that this was due to the difference in life expectancy. Of course we were only seeing a snapshot of their lives but they seemed to have the same settled lives, friends and neighbours and so on as everyone else. I genuinely would never minimise the prejudice and violence experienced by gay people (or anyone else for that matter) and I agree that much of the tolerance was based on "don't ask don't tell" which again is wrong, but from my experience, there were many gay couples just living their lives.

It made me cry too.

It was called the upper hand bit if a bizzare series but I enjoyed it when I was younger pretty sure they predictably got together in the end either that or I stopped watching assuming they wouod get together in the end

I think the genuine lady companions, who were just, that a pair of women who remained single often because of a lack of availability of men thanks to the wars who shared home because of the difficulties of passing through the world as a single woman (financial, safety, 'respectability') gave those who were more than just companions plausible denyability. There wasn't really a history/tradition of two single men setting up home together in the same way which made it a lot trickier for a male couple.

They did! The Upper Hand was a UK version of a popular sitcom in the USA called "Who's The Boss", with Tony Danza (used to have a big old crush on him!). It was a now-very-dated premis but fairly novel in the earlier 80s, which is when the series started in the US - a typically "alpha male" sportsman, retired young through injury, forced to take a job as a live-in housekeeper to give his child a better life and finds that his boss is a female executive president. Traditional hierarchy-role-reversal hilarity ensues. 🙄😉

The McGanns are the UK equivalent of the Baldwins. I prefer the McGanns.

Agreed - I knew (still know a few alive today actually) a few ladies exactly like this. The wars decimated the male population in some areas more than others and opportunities to live and work further from home were more limited. I had three maiden aunts who all lived together until the end of their very long lives. They were great. Also, sadly, a lot of trauma or abuses going on unchecked in days past, which might have put them off a traditional relationship/marriage, even where the menfolk were plentiful and decent.

I had three maiden great aunts on Dad's side, two of whom lived together, the third had a companion she lived with - I was fairly young when she died so I have no idea if they were just two women without husbands who moved to a city in order to find work and lodged together or if they were actually a couple.

My maiden Great Aunt on Mum's side live alone but was the one who would step in to 'hold the fort' when it was needed so she actually spent a lot of time either housekeeping or caring for her parents, her siblings etc. She would go and stay with her sisters for several months when they had babies and look after any older children, do the cooking, cleaning etc. She was very much loved by Mum, her siblings and her huge army cousins because she had 'mothered' them all at some point. I think she was very sad that the war robbed her of her chance to marry and have children of her own.

yes I am sure you are right. Also of course historically its hard to determine how many female partnerships were gay and how many were just companions.

there was also a teen version "Charles in Charge" starring Scott Baio which was similar except "Charles" was younger and working class. He was hired to be a "Big Brother" type carer for the children of rich parents.

Ahhh... Scott Baio. Those were the days...! Theme tunes were better in those days as well.

I used to think that about my great aunts - but they were very happy. They were mighty women and taught me a lot. I'm very proud that I'm a lot like Maiden Aunt D.

I knew 2 retired ladies, both midwives, who had delivered pretty much everyone in a couple of generations of a small rural town. They lived together in a cottage they named ' Gooseberry Bush'.

Absolutely lovely (and much loved) women, no idea of their relationship but very much of the generation of Nurse Crane and Miss Higgins.

Gooseberry Bush 😅🤣🤣😅😅 !!
Fantastic name for a cottage belong to 2 midwives !

I’ve just watched this episode
did beryl not know goeffry was gay and did she only realise it in the pub they went to?
also I bawled when sister A showed up to get SMJ😭

I don't think it was a shock to her that he was gay, it's always been fairly implicit. They had a conversation a few weeks ago in which he hinted at potentially having a child together and she didn't seem to read it as a traditional proposal. I think she just realised that she would still be on the edge of things, that she was too late to have a baby and that having sampled life outside of the convent it wouldn't be any more fulfilling than her life as a nun where at least she could be surrounded by babies and children and have a sense of certainty and security.

I had the biggest crush on him in happy days, and Joanie Loves Chachi.

Ive watched again and cried again! The makeup artists got SMJ pallor completely right and it took me back to when my dad died.

they were!

I agree. She was well aware that he was gay. I think what she hadn't properly realised was that his social circle was largely gay men. Not that she had a problem with that but it would mean keeping secrets eg Dr Parry and it still wouldn't have been the life she wanted. She might have accepted it if it had been possible to be a mother but that was pretty much taken out of the equation.